Blackpool pleasure beach

[Roundthemoon]

I just visited Blackpool and I Had a nice time going around the beach and activities.

But honestly- Blackpool pleasure beach - what are they thinking! Some of the rides are so old and dangerous, I don't know how they are allowed at all.

It was the first time that I went .

I went on one ride, and it went extremely high. It was like an old fashioned rollrr coaster, but you were sitting on a horse. It's called steeple chase.

. There was the tiniest old fashioned seat belt on the horse, like a car seat belt. Except it was just a horizontal belt. The material of the belt looked old, worn and thin. And it didn't hold you on properly.

You had to grip with your hands onto the handle bars. This ride went extremely high and it was extremely fast and jerky, and i was nearly jerked out of the seat several times. If the ride jerked and you fell out of the seat , you would slip through the seat belt and you would fall a very long way down. I was holding on for dear life. I very nearly came off and fell once.

People were getting off the ride at the end and were crying and looking extremely stressed.

The guy running the ride laughed and said to us "you won't do that ride again in a hurry will you haha". Because he knew it was bad

I saw other rides in the park, where the metal holding the ride up looked completely rusted through.

I don't know how the park is allowed from a health and safety standpoint?

I'm shocked anyone goes to Blackpool full stop

I was waiting for a comment like this..... surprised it too so long!

But to answer your question....

Nostalgia. Both me and DS went regularly as children. It was part of our childhood. It nice to share those memories and experiences with DS.

Yes it's run down but it is what it is and you can still have fun.

That should say me and DH obviously.

You don’t know what you’re missing. I went a couple of years ago and that horse racing roller coaster is amazing. I was frightened to death the whole way round but it’s the most unusual and thrilling ride I’d been on in a long time (mostly because you spend the whole ride being petrified about being flung off!).

You had to be the one.

Hoof Hearted backwards is Detraehfooh, which doesn't mean anything (apart from being one of the lost kingdoms in Game Of Thrones) - but it's still the most perfect racehorse name that has ever been or ever will be

Anyone remember The Ranger ? It would be mid 80's, it was a pirate ship that went upside down

Didn't Red Rum turn up n the illuminations once too ? (Not him personally with his hooves obvs !) Used to train down the road on Southport beach

@PurpleFlower1983 thank you so much for sharing that clip!
We went on a teacher training day to BPB earlier this year and it was absolutely amazing- I kept pointing out all the missing attractions from my childhood.

According to my mum, steeple chase didn’t even have seatbelts years ago.

River Caves are closed?! Such a shame love those.

River Caves are closed?! Such a shame love those..

Them were open last year. I hope they not closed as I love them!

I once stayed in the hotel beside the Pleasure Gardens and the sound of thr rollar coaster going right past my bedroom window was enough to scare me!

Loved the lost rides video, I've never been on any of those and it was still fascinating. A little appreciated bit of engineering history.

I made the mistake of taking DD on the Derby Racer when she was about 3, thinking it was a nice gentle carousel ride. We had gone on a weekday when all the big kids were in school so there was no queue and we didn't see the ride in action before getting on it, just walked straight on. It is not a nice gentle carousel, it mimics the experience of being on a race horse and goes at about 100mph (probably not really but it feels like it when you're having to hold on to a crying and terrified young child). Lesson learned, never get on anything before watching what it does first.

You should have cashed in and sold drinks to the riders - order on your first pass, pay on your second pass and then have your order hastily shoved at you on the third pass

Have you not seen the other deaths in UK parks. There was one a few years ago where a 11 year old girl on a school trip, stood up on a water ride and died. Might have been lightwater valley or the serious injuries at Alton towers, these rides are still going... yet with Steeple chase has been no serious injuries or deaths and you seem obessed with its health and safety.

You've issued a link about space invaders which no longer exists because the theme park takes health and safety seriously and shut it down, other parks carry on.

How do you break your leg on Alice in Wonderland?

I can understand major psychological trauma on there, especially if you get the car with the white rabbit, but physical injury?

I know, seems impossible to break something on that ride other then your sanity- why does it play, Ive got a golden ticket song for Alice in Wonderland?

Yeah it goes very fast!

I did same as you. That was another one that I thought would be a gentle carousel ride.

Every other horse carousel ride I've been on goes nice and slow.

I got on the Derby racer thinking it would be the same.

It goes extremely extremely fast and you feel like you're going to fall off.

And of course again, there's no seatbelt at all.

There are just reins to hold on to.

Do you know at the top of it, when you come back outside from the inside part. When you are on the outside bit, it jerks a bit at the turn, and you are high up there.

I guess someone could have fallen out at that bit. If you fell from there, you would break a bone

I grew up there and remember my mum telling me to avoid the Steeplechase as people had fallen off. All other rides were okay apparently. I remember when the Avalanche crashed, I had been on it many a time. As a teen, we used to get the bus to the town centre to go shopping but jump on and off for a quick single coaster ride onroute. I also recall the fear of the huge drop at Peabodys. I look back at those times as being great despite the dangers. Fear is the essence of rollercoasters and I think we expect such a sanitised existence nowadays.

They were closed when we were there in June.

They were closed this week too

I love the steeple chase!

Been on it multiple times over the years and never once seen anyone come off it crying or looking distressed!